Five Ways to Use QR Codes at Your Restaurant this Holiday Season

With the holiday season here, it’s time to start thinking about your marketing strategy. Christmas and New Year’s Eve provide an excellent opportunity to increase your marketing strategy, especially for restaurants and bars. During the holiday season, people look for places to spend time with their friends and family. How can you convince them to choose your restaurant? 

QR codes have taken over the restaurant industry, showing up on tabletops as a way to view online menus. However, they’re capable of so much more and can help to improve your holiday marketing strategy this year. Here are a few ways that you can integrate the use of QR codes into your holiday marketing strategy this year.

1. Make it Easy to RSVP for an Event

During the winter season, there are many opportunities for events. If you plan on throwing a holiday party or hosting another type of event at your restaurant or bar this holiday season, think about using a QR code on your flyers or table tents. You can easily link this QR code to the event webpage, making it easy for customers to RSVP without having to look up the event details themselves. 

By using a QR code, you can also track engagement with the event page and see how many people scan your QR codes, giving you an accurate representation of how effective your marketing strategy is. 

2. Provide an Order Form for Holiday Takeout Packages

To extend your reach over the holiday season, offer takeout packages. By offering takeout packages you can reach the customers who want to spend time with their family and friends within the comfort of their own homes, while still enjoying restaurant-quality food. These packages often contain large, family-size portions. 

Not only that, but you can also make yourself available to cater to larger events like parties. To make it super simple to place a catering order, use a QR code on your takeout and catering menus. By linking the QR code to your website, online ordering platform, or contact form, potential customers can easily inquire about your options and place orders. 

3. Increase Your Social Media Following

As a restaurant or bar owner, it’s important to keep up with social media. Whether you’re using Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or all of the above keeping active can greatly increase your reach. During the holiday season, you may choose to start a new marketing campaign across your platforms, so it’s important to make sure your social media accounts are easy to find and follow. While many of your dedicated fans will find you by search, a QR code can make it easy for new patrons of your restaurant to follow you. 

You can connect your social media accounts to QR codes on table tents, menus, and so much more. However, on top of making your social media easy to access, you’ll also need to give customers a reason to follow you. While many will follow solely out of support and interest, others will require more persuasion. By hosting contests and sharing coupons on your social media feed, you’ll promote higher engagement and traffic. 

Now that you’ve used QR codes to increase your social media following, you can more effectively run your holiday social media campaign. 

4. Prompt Online Reviews 

Local businesses require positive online reviews to thrive. About 90 percent of people research restaurants before choosing where to eat, and 92 percent of people read customer reviews. If a restaurant has bad reviews, researching customers may avoid it. Positive reviews are even more important around the holiday season. People look for places to go with their family and friends, places with a great atmosphere, delicious food, and stellar service. With poor reviews, your restaurant likely won’t get much holiday traffic. 

Positive reviews can also help build up your local SEO. Without good local SEO, your restaurant won’t show up to as many people in Google search results or on Google Maps. Not only that, but positive reviews also increase bounce rates, meaning that more people will visit your website and further investigate your brand if you have many positive reviews. 

To prompt more online reviews during the holiday season and promote your restaurant as the perfect place to have a delicious holiday meal with your friends or family this year, use a QR code. You can link QR codes directly to your Google My Business page, making it super simple for customers to leave a review. You can place QR codes on takeout menus, table tents, and more.

5. Link to your Holiday Menu 

Link to your holiday menu to showcase your new festive drinks and dishes. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, contactless menus have increased in popularity. Even though the pandemic has slowed down, many people still prefer to view menus on their phones. 

You can put a QR code on tables, table tents, and regular menus in order to allow customers to easily access your holiday or regular menu. Creating a fun and festive menu will make your restaurant more appealing as an option for holiday festivities, and may entice customers to come in and try something new.

Have Fun with Your Marketing Strategy for the Holidays 

No matter what you decide to do, it’s important to have fun with your marketing strategy and show your personality throughout. Customers can tell when you’re having fun, and it will only make them all the more excited about your holiday options. So, throw a party, create some festive menu options, and don’t forget to incorporate QR codes for quick and easy access to web pages, online menus, and so much more.